Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - S11E21 - "Rule Breakers"

Episode Date: May 28, 2022

This week, the topic is rule breakers. It takes a courageous advertiser to flout the rules. The results can either be a goldmine or a landmine. We’ll talk about a burger chain that dared show moldy food in its advertising and a rule-breaking stunt involving the NRA that you won’t soon forget. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly. As you may know, we've been producing a lot of bonus episodes while under the influences on hiatus. They're called the Beatleology Interviews, where I talk to people who knew the Beatles, work with them, love them, and the authors who write about them. Well, the Beatleology Interviews have become a hit, so we are spinning it out to be a standalone podcast series. You've already heard conversations with people like actors Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, and Beatles confidant Astrid Kershaw. But coming up, I talk to May Pang, who dated John Lennon in the mid-70s. I talk to double fantasy guitarist Earl Slick, Apple Records creative director John Kosh. I'll be talking to Jan Hayworth,

who designed the Sgt. Pepper album cover. Very cool. And I'll talk to singer Dion, who is one of only five people still alive who were on the Sgt. Pepper cover. And two of those people were Beatles. The stories they tell are amazing. So thank you for making this series such a success. And please, do me a favor, follow the Beatleology interviews on your podcast app. You don't even have to be a huge Beatles fan, you just have to love storytelling. Subscribe now and don't miss a single beat. We'll see you next time. new locations. What matters is that you have something there to adapt with you, whether you need a challenge or rest. And Peloton has everything you need, whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. This is an apostrophe podcast production. Hypostrophy Podcast Production You're so king in it.

The gore is up in an instant. Your teeth look whiter than noon, noon, noon. You're not you when you're hungry. You're a good man with all things. You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly. When he hit the stage, the mania would start immediately. When he shook his flowing hair, women screamed. When he swayed hypnotically, girls sobbed and fainted. When he threw silk scarves into the audience Fans tore at each other's hair just to grab them

Women had erotic fantasies about him And men secretly wanted to be him People would follow him concert to concert, venue to venue, city to city. He was not like the others, because he broke all the rules. His name was Franz Liszt. Long before there were Beatles and way before Elvis the Pelvis, Liszt was the original rock star. Franz Liszt was a classical composer who lived between 1811 and 1886. An outrageously talented Hungarian, Liszt set classical concert halls on fire during his performances. He did it by breaking the rules

of stage decorum. He was the first to enter the stage from the wings, making a grand appearance, sending an almost electric shock through the audience. He was the first to set his piano at a right angle to the stage so the audience could watch his hands move up and down the keyboard at unimaginable speed. He tossed his shoulder-length locks in time with the music, and used incredibly dramatic facial expressions to match the mood of the music. None of this had ever been done before.

Older patrons rolled their eyes, younger ones screamed with delight. Classical music performances in the 19th century were cultured, formal, exceedingly polite affairs. Liszt's concerts were wild. He would bring the crown to a near state of delirium with his provocative moves and his dramatic keyboard style. Women wore Liszt's image on cameos and necklaces. When his piano wires broke in concert, they would clamor to grab the wire and turn it into bracelets. Women would tear at his clothes and hair and try to storm the stage. They would observe him through binoculars, from the front row. Liszt's many affairs made for scintillating gossip.

He was, quite simply, a musical aphrodisiac. The frenzy was dubbed Lisztomania in 1844, a pioneering term that would give birth to Beatlemania a century later. As a matter of fact, Liszt became a bona fide celebrity, a word the Oxford English Dictionary says was first used in the 1830s as Liszt rose to fame. The popular press at the time reported expansively on his concerts and charisma. Even though Franz Liszt lived a century before mass communication, his reputation was known right across Europe.

Liszt dared break all the rules, and he did it with wild abandon and brazen sex appeal. As one historian said, today's superstars would look like little schoolboys compared to Franz Liszt. Occasionally, there are advertisers that break all the rules in the world of marketing. They look at products and see unusual opportunities. They look at the traditional marketing no-fly zones and brazenly go there.

They shun the expected and dare to be bold. Sometimes the results are remarkable, and sometimes they hit a bad note. You're under the influence. Skittles broke the rules on Super Bowl Sunday. Instead of running a $5.5 million commercial during the big game in 2019 and competing with all the other expensive Super Bowl ads, Skittles wondered if there was an even bigger stage.

So Skittles partnered with advertising agency DDB and decided to stage a full 30-minute Broadway show. It was titled Skittles Commercial, the Broadway Musical, and it starred actor Michael C. Hall. There would be only one performance on Super Bowl Sunday. Within 72 hours of the announcement, all 1,500 seats were completely sold out at $200 a ticket. The ad agency recruited Broadway professionals to help produce the show.

The play revolved around Michael C. Hall, he of Dexter fame, playing himself, performing in the long-form commercial for Skittles, dressed as a cat, and wondering out loud whether it was a good career decision or not. Have you ever been asked to make a Skittles ad? Dressed like an animal, Not sure if you feel angry Or just sad And your agent Brian urged you to say yes It's for the big game after all And it could be a big success But you get out on the stage

And you realize what you've done. This ad will not be on TV. This ad will not be number one. And you're sweating off your tail because you're dressed up like a cat. Have you ever felt like that? As Michael C. Hall has his humorous existential crisis, actors planted in the audience start shouting at him, saying they can't believe they paid $200 to watch a Skittles commercial.

Hall points out the show is titled Skittles Commercial, the Broadway musical. So what did they expect? You know, I don't know if I could ever trust a faceless multinational corporation again. The performance concludes with a number that answers Michael C. Hall's opening question about whether acting in this Skittles commercial was a good career move or not. This definitely was a bad idea. As promised, the show opened and closed on Super Bowl Sunday. Skittles donated the ticket revenue to charity, then posted an online film of the production, a music video, and even produced a full cast recording on Spotify.

The Skittles Broadway musical was written up in over 1,000 publications. The play, or ad if you will, was reviewed by the New York Times Theater section. The Washington Post theater critic said this may be the funniest Super Bowl commercial that won't be in the Super Bowl. Another theater reviewer called it a production that satirized advertising while advertising the hell out of Skittles. And get this. The Broadway production ended up with over 2.5 billion earned media impressions, which is, astoundingly, 25 times the viewership of a typical Super Bowl TV commercial. It was a rule-breaking Super Bowl idea that broke through without needing the Super Bowl. Nivea in Germany broke the rules recently by linking its product to poop.

Kids at the beach don't like to wear sunscreen, and exasperated parents are forever wrestling with their children to apply it. So Nivea came up with an idea. They designed a drone that looked exactly like a seagull. It was a remote-controlled bird specially designed to distribute Nivea's sunscreen to kids. Using a UV camera, they could identify kids at the beach who were not wearing sunscreen.

Then, the seagull drone would swoop in and poop sunscreen on them. The drone seagull did what all real seagulls do, except it was white sunscreen lotion. Nivea called it a fun sunscreen experience for kids. The seagull patrolled the beach, and Nivea created a YouTube video showing kids laughing while being targeted by the pooping drone. The idea was entered into the Cannes Advertising Awards. It got the judges' attention and was heavily debated. Even though the idea broke the rules,

it didn't come away with any awards. In the end, the judges called it hysterical and disgusting. A personal care brand called EOS threw the rulebook away recently. They created a campaign called Pubes for the Planet. Yep, that gets your attention. In an era of, shall we call it, genital gardening, EOS asked people to collect their trimmings and send them to an organization called Matter of Trust. That organization

transforms hair into actual tools that solve various environmental issues. Apparently, your nether hair can actually be turned into loosely felted mats that help plants grow by preventing soil erosion while letting rain pass through. The hair also allows for slow nitrogen release. The absorbent quality of your ground floor fur can also be used to clean up

oil spills. And hair is durable while being totally biodegradable. When you signed up at the Pubes for the Planet website, EOS sent you an envelope to put your southern shag into that was pre-addressed to Matter of Trust, and you received a tube of EOS shaving cream for doing so. This rule-shattering idea gives pubes a purpose,

and it also increased the sales of EOS shaving cream by 59%. Which reminds me of a burger company that broke the mold of food advertising. In the food industry, the key marketing element is something called taste appeal. Every product label, every print ad, every television commercial, and every online video is produced so the food looks pristine and delicious. There are even people called food stylists who specialize in making food look great on camera. That's why it was so surprising when Burger King broke that golden marketing rule. Back in 2020, Burger King launched a global advertising campaign. The purpose of the campaign was to communicate the company's commitment to dropping all artificial preservatives. That kind of announcement has been made by many food companies and usually generates a yawn.

But Burger King's announcement got instant attention because the company unveiled a moldy Whopper. It was a video showing a Whopper decomposing and rotting over a period of 34 days. What a difference a day made. The time-lapse ad showed a Whopper and its ingredients slowly collapsing and being engulfed in a furry mold. A date stamp showed the progress day by day. The burger was filmed in excruciating close-ups. Bun, toppings, and patty all getting furrier and furrier, finally coming to an inglorious bluish slump on the 34th day. The tagline was,

The beauty of no artificial preservatives. Burger King issued a statement saying it was committed to removing all preservatives, colors, and artificial flavors from its food at all its locations worldwide. Filming a decomposing burger broke all, and I mean all, the rules of food advertising. It not only had zero taste appeal, it was actually repulsive,

in a fascinating kind of way. You just had to watch. The results of the Moldy Whopper were surprising. First, there were very mixed responses from the advertising and food industries. Some saluted the courage of Burger King. Others considered it brand suicide. But the proof is always in the pudding, or between the pudding,

or between the buns, if you will. The Moldy Whopper campaign achieved around 8.4 billion organic media impressions, and 88% of the articles were positive. The video was watched for over 1.4 million minutes on Facebook. And listen to this. Research revealed that the Moldy Whopper campaign reached a level of awareness

50% higher than Burger King's 2019 Super Bowl commercial. Think about that for a second. A Super Bowl ad costs over $5 million to be put in front of 100 million sets of eyeballs. Yet, the moldy Whopper generated even more awareness from a static, inexpensively produced video on social media. And a survey of 2,000 people found that the probability of visiting Burger King had increased by 23% as a result of the ad. In other words, the moldy Whopper made people want to eat at Burger King.

The advertising industry is famous for the number of award shows. And not long ago, a very surprising campaign was entered into a prestigious advertising award show in New York. A group of anonymous advertising people submitted a campaign titled Project Metal, M-E-D-D-L-E. It was entered into the Best Use of Social Media category. The entrance claimed it was the campaign of the century. In 2016, Russia was losing relevance among democracy-obsessed Americans. So when the United States was gearing up

for the next presidential election, it was time to do something disruptive. But how could we break through in America's crowded media landscape? Our answer? Project Metal. Project Metal was, in fact, Russia's campaign to meddle in the American presidential election of 2016. We started by aligning ourselves with the top chair influencer as the face of our campaign. Wouldn't it be nice if we actually got along with Russia? Putin was very nice to me. He said Donald Trump is a genius.

All right, I'll take that, right? Then built a social newsroom to amplify his content around the clock. Project Metal explained its goals and strategies. Instead of relying on slow-moving traditional news organizations, we simply created our own news coverage. Here it is, close up, the devastating photo right there that proves Hillary Clinton's crippling health condition. Using Facebook's integrated data tools, we were able to create news that was highly relevant to our target in real time. The Anonymous Group had submitted the campaign

to the award show on behalf of Russia. In the press release, the group said, quote, like it or not, Russia created the most impactful campaign of the 21st century.

It went on to say that although the anonymous group of advertising professionals strongly disagreed with Russia's election interference campaign produced numbers that would be eye-popping at any advertising agency. 760 million clicks on certified fake Russian news stories, the equivalent of everyone in the U.S. clicking the stories three times, 288 million Twitter impressions,

and an infinite amount of media coverage. The jury agreed and awarded the campaign the top prize. However, the award show's board of directors disqualified the entry because Russia itself hadn't entered the campaign.

Russia, of course, wasn't even acknowledging the election interference. But that wasn't the point of the entry. The anonymous ad group was making a statement. The genius of the idea was to make Putin look like a typical advertising client who had a brand that was failing and fading and needed a marketing makeover.

And no one could deny the campaign worked. Putin's brand is stronger than ever, and the 2016 presidential campaign will forever be questioned. No other marketing campaign had ever generated results of that magnitude in the history of powerful marketing campaigns. The ad industry is the main customer of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And those social media channels

made specific psychographic targeting tools for advertisers. The point the anonymous ad group wanted to make was that the advertising industry had co-created many of those tools, the same ones Russia was using to undermine democracies around the world. And the ad industry needed to take responsibility and help social media channels fix that problem before those same tools are used again in the next

election. Entering the Russian election interference campaign in a top advertising awards show to make a point was, quite simply, a rule-breaking idea. If you're looking for flexible workouts, Peloton's got you covered. Summer runs or playoff season meditations, whatever your vibe, Peloton has thousands of classes built to push you. We know how life goes. New father, new routines, new locations. What matters is that you have something there to adapt with you, whether you need a challenge or rest. And Peloton has everything you need, whenever you need it.

Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. One morning, back in 2020, the two-time former president of the NRA took to an outdoor stage in Las Vegas. He had been invited to give a commencement speech to the graduating class of a high school called the James Madison Academy, and he was there that morning to rehearse.

The high school was named after James Madison, fourth president of the United States, and also the founding father who had proposed what became the Second Amendment. And there were 3,044 empty white chairs arranged in front of the former NRA president that day. Let me begin by telling you what an honor it is to be here to help celebrate your graduation. Picture for a minute the young James Madison, for whom this school is named. This year you focused on one of the most important of Madison's amendments, the Second Amendment. This former National Rifle Association president had spent millions of dollars to block universal background checks. There are some who continue to fight to gut the Second Amendment.

But I'd be willing to bet that many of you will be among those who stand up and prevent them from succeeding. What the NRA executive didn't know was that James Madison High School didn't really exist. The expanse of 3,044 empty white chairs before him was arranged to resemble the white crosses at Arlington Cemetery. And those 3044 chairs represented the 3044 students who would not graduate that year because they had been killed by gun violence. The stunt was organized by advertising agency Leo Burnett and the parents of students killed during the mass shooting at Parkland High School in Florida. The commencement speech was filmed that morning

and posted online at thelostclass.com. The video was interspersed with real 911 calls from actual high school mass shootings while the former NRA president talked about defending the Second Amendment. interspersed with real 9-1-1 calls from actual high school mass shootings, while the former NRA president talked about defending the Second Amendment. Defending it is a challenge and a duty that Americans like you, who understand what has made the country the envy of the world, must accept as their own. The point of the stunt was to draw attention to the issue and urge politicians to support universal background check laws.

Seeing the former NRA president speaking to 3,044 empty white chairs was a striking image. Most brash ideas push up against the rules, but this one broke them all. When the NRA pushed back after the video was posted, saying they were tricked, the parents of the gun victims offered up one memorable statement. They said the NRA president should have done a proper background check

on the school. That way, he would have realized no such school existed. General Douglas MacArthur once said, You are remembered for the rules you break. But rule-breaking is a precarious proposition. Sometimes it's a gold mine, other times it's a landmine. When Skittles decided to mount a Broadway play on Super Bowl Sunday,

instead of placing an expensive ad in the Super Bowl game. It ended up attracting 25 times more attention at a fraction of the cost. But when Nivea pooped on kids at the beach, it was a rule that maybe should have remained unbroken. EOS Shaving Cream skirted the line with their rule-breaking idea, but were smart enough to attach it to an environmental issue. Then, there was Burger King. It broke the golden rule of food marketing,

but that mold persuaded more people to eat there. Project Metal was rule-breaking and groundbreaking. The very idea of entering Russia's election interference campaign into an advertising award show was unheard of and genius because it forced social media channels and advertising agencies to face some uncomfortable questions. And the audacious move to invite a former NRA president to give a commencement speech to 3,044 empty chairs made a huge statement about gun violence

and the importance of doing background checks. It takes a lot of courage to flout the rules. That's why the roll call of rule breakers is a short list, topped by Franz List. When you're under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. This episode was recorded in the Terrastream

mobile recording studio. Producer, Debbie O'Reilly. Sound Engineer, Jeff Devine. Theme music by Ari Posner and Ian Lefevre. If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like When Madison Avenue Met Broadway, The World of Industrial Musicals, Season 5, Episode 23. You'll find it in our archives wherever you listen to your pods.

See you next week. Fun fact. Some scientists say seagull droppings could be worth millions as commercial fertilizer. That's some good poop.